Tesla Inc. has grown from Silicon Valley gadfly to the world’s second largest automaker by market capitalization in the decade since its initial public offering. It has been a rollercoaster ride for electric car maker shareholders, who have experienced dizzying blackouts along the way to record levels thanks, in part, to self-inflicted crises.
“There is always a lot of drama with Tesla, but they have spurred the auto industry to embrace electrification as the key to the future of mobility,” said Tony Posawatz, former leader of the Volt plug-in hybrid program for General Motors Co., former CEO of Fisker. and current director of Lucid Motors Inc. “Whether they are profitable or not, they have impacted the luxury car market forever.”
On June 29, 2010, Tesla made its debut as a public company – the first initial public offering by a national automaker in half a century. The IPO price was US $ 17 per share. CEO Elon Musk rang the Nasdaq’s opening bell, and the company’s only electric car, the $ 109,000 Roadster, was on display in Times Square.
A decade later, Tesla shares are trading at $ 959.74 per share, the company has grown to approximately 48,000 employees, and its influence in the global auto industry is unprecedented. Despite many skeptics and some near-death experiences, Tesla’s $ 178 billion market valuation is second only to Toyota Motor Corp. among all automakers.
Tesla no longer makes the Roadster, but sells four other models in markets around the world. In addition to the design, one of the company’s biggest advantages lies in its batteries: A version of the iconic Model S now has a range of over 400 miles. No other electric car comes close.
“Their products generate a lot of enthusiasm among customers,” said Posawatz.
As Wall Street waits for the company to report second-quarter production and delivery figures later this week, here are 10 key moments that shaped Tesla’s remarkable decade.
The only Tesla electric car in 2010 was the $ 109,000 Roadster.
1) Government life line
In January 2010, the US Department of Energy granted Tesla a $ 465 million loan as part of the Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Program that President George W. Bush enacted two years earlier. Funding came at a critical time, with the nation still struggling to get out of the Great Recession. In May 2013, Tesla repaid the entire loan with interest. The DOE program has now become a clean energy stimulus spending model.
2) Fremont Factory
In May 2010, Tesla surprised the world by announcing that it was purchasing a previously closed auto plant managed by Toyota and General Motors Co. in Fremont, California, and Toyota was investing $ 50 million in the beginning. The surprise deal was presented by Musk and Toyota president Akio Toyoda, who flew in from Japan for the announcement. The Fremont plant still produces most of Tesla’s cars, but the company now has a second car assembly plant near Shanghai and is building a third near Berlin.
An employee works on a Telsa Motor Inc. Model S sedan as it moves down an assembly line at the company’s assembly plant in Fremont, California.
3) Car of the year
In December 2012, Motor Trend named the Model S its 2013 Car of the Year. It was the first winner in the 64-year history of the award not working with an internal combustion engine. The nod showed established automakers that battery-powered cars could be more than just nerdy science projects and gave the Tesla brand a huge boost.
4) The “Gigafactory”
In September 2014, Tesla announced that it had chosen Nevada as the site for the automaker’s first “gigafactory” of battery production, with Panasonic Corp. as its partner. The news capped a fierce battle between states hoping to land the economic development project. The plant demonstrated Tesla’s drive to vertically integrate its supply chain down to the battery cell level. Tesla is now taking steps to establish its own cell manufacturing operation in Fremont, and investors are eager to hear more at a “Battery Day” event in September.
5) Musk iPhone moment
When Tesla introduced the Model 3 sedan in March 2016, customers lined up in a way the world had grown accustomed to seeing consumers lining up for iPhones. The promise of a $ 35,000 mass-market car barely materialized (the average transaction price is closer to $ 50,000), but the Model 3 managed to rival conventional sedans on the sales charts. The company is now trying to tap into a growing market segment with the Model Y crossover.
Tesla Model 3 vehicles made in China are seen during a delivery event at their factory in Shanghai in January 2020.
6) Autopilot scrutiny
On May 7, 2016, a devoted Tesla customer and former Navy SEAL, Joshua Brown, died when his Tesla Model S collided with a trailer truck in Florida. The autopilot in Tesla’s driver assistance system was compromised at the time, and death was the first known technology-related fatality. US regulators investigated but found no flaws. Autopilot remains under scrutiny, and several other deaths in the United States have been linked to the system.
7) Solar brother
In June 2016, Tesla announced that it was bidding to buy SolarCity, a solar panel installer that Musk founded with his cousins. Conflicts of interest were stark: Musk was SolarCity’s largest shareholder and chairman of its board of directors. SolarCity was having financial difficulties and Tesla had just introduced Model 3, but Musk released the acquisition as “obvious” and announced a new tile-roofed product to sell to investors in the acquisition. Deployment of the Tesla-branded roof has been slow, and the deal itself continues to be disputed, with a lawsuit by Tesla shareholders slated to begin next month at Delaware Chancery Court.
8) “Secured financing”
As Musk’s prediction foretold that Tesla would be in “production hell” foretold, 2018 was a crazy year. Tesla struggled to mass-produce the Model 3 and built an assembly line under a massive outside tent to increase production. Dozens of executives left. In July, Musk called a British cave diver a “fart boy” on Twitter, prompting a libel suit. The following month, Musk surprised investors and his own executives when he tweeted about taking Tesla privately at $ 420 a share, saying he had “secured funds.” Three weeks later, in a blog post on Friday night, Musk backed off and said Tesla would remain public. A month later, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission sued Musk for securities fraud. The deal stripped Musk of the office of president for three years, meaning Musk could become president again in late 2021.
9) Shanghai Showing
Tesla scored a huge victory amidst all the drama of 2018 by becoming the first American automaker to be able to build a manufacturing plant in China without a local joint venture partner. The Tesla factory near Shanghai began delivering its first vehicles on January 7, a year after construction began. China is the world’s largest auto market and a big part of Tesla’s future growth plans.
Elon Musk introduces the battery-powered Tesla Cybertruck on November 21, 2019.
10) Cybertruck Smash
In November, Musk unveiled the futuristic Cybertruck, an angular pickup truck with a very different shape than a Ford F-150. The real show was when Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla’s longtime chief designer, smashed two of the truck’s shatter-proof windows with a metal ball. The failed demo generated a huge amount of buzz. Tesla wants to build a plant for Cybertruck in the United States, and the sites in Texas and Oklahoma are the two finalists.
Bloomberg.com
